What the studies show
In 2016, Alexander Burgoyne and five colleagues reviewed 19 studies with 1,779 participants in all. The link between intelligence and playing strength averaged 0.24, on a scale where 0 is no link and 1 is a perfect one. That's a weak to moderate link.
The ability to solve new problems accounted for 6 percent of the differences in playing strength on average. Among children and young people it was 10 percent; among adults, 1 percent. The link was also weaker among rated players than among unrated ones.
The children in Oxfordshire
Merim Bilalić, Peter McLeod, and Fernand Gobet tested 57 schoolchildren who played chess. Practice mattered most for how strong they were, but intelligence explained a little more. Among the 23 very best children, intelligence played no part, and if anything it went with lower playing strength. In that group, the more intelligent children had practiced less.
The researchers themselves warned against drawing big conclusions: the children in the study were unusually gifted, with an average above 120.
Both count
A 2019 study followed 90 Austrian tournament players, aged 15 to 65 when they were tested. The more intelligent got more out of the same amount of practice: they improved faster, peaked higher, and declined less as they got older. But practice was needed either way.
More about what makes a player strong is under How do you get better at chess?
And the famous numbers?
Figures circulate for the IQ of particular grandmasters. We haven't found a reliable source for any of them, so we don't repeat them.
Sources
- A. P. Burgoyne, G. Sala, F. Gobet, B. N. Macnamara, G. Campitelli, and D. Z. Hambrick: The relationship between cognitive ability and chess skill: A comprehensive meta-analysis, Intelligence 59 (2016)
- M. Bilalić, P. McLeod, and F. Gobet: Does chess need intelligence? A study with young chess players, Intelligence 35 (2007)
- N. Vaci et al.: The joint influence of intelligence and practice on skill development throughout the life span, PNAS 116 (2019)
- G. Sala and F. Gobet: Does far transfer exist? Negative evidence from chess, music, and working memory training, Current Directions in Psychological Science 26 (2017)
The facts on this page come from the sources above and, where possible, were checked across several sources. Where the sources disagree, we say less or say what each one says. A number that is an estimate says whose it is, and a counted number comes with its date.
Updated November 14, 2026